Grusin - Remediation
J. David Bolter and Richard A. Grusin - Remediation - Configurations 4:3
http://muse.jhu.edu.gtel.gatech.edu:2048/journals/configurations/v004/4.3bolter.html
Copyright © 1996 The Johns Hopkins University Press and the Society for Literature and Science. All rights reserved.
Configurations 4.3 (1996) 311-358
Access provided by Georgia Institute of Technology
Remediation
Jay David Bolter Richard Grusin Figures
"Immediacy is, however, a one-sided determination; thought does not contain it alone, but also the determination to mediate itself with itself, and thereby the mediation being at the same time the abrogation of mediation--it is immediacy." Hegel "And, as always, coherence in contradiction expresses the force of a desire." Derrida
The Double Logic of Strange Days
"This is not like TV only better," says Lenny Nero in the futuristic film Strange Days. "This is life. It's a piece of somebody's life. Pure and uncut, straight from the cerebral cortex. You're there. You're doing it, seeing it, hearing it . . . feeling it." Lenny is touting a black-market device called "the wire" to a potential customer. The wire is a technological wonder that deserves Lenny's praise. It fits over the wearer's head like a skull cap,
1 of 40
4/6/07 11:58 AM
J. David Bolter and Richard A. Grusin - Remediation - Configurations 4:3
http://muse.jhu.edu.gtel.gatech.edu:2048/journals/configurations/v004/4.3bolter.html
and sensors in the cap somehow make contact with the perceptual centers in the brain. In its recording mode, the wire captures the sense perceptions of the wearer; in its playback mode, the device delivers these recorded perceptions to the wearer. If we accept the popular view that the role of media is to record and transfer sense experiences from one person to another, the wire threatens to make obsolete all technologies of representation. Lenny mentions television, but we can extend his critique to books, paintings, photographs, film, and
http://muse.jhu.edu.gtel.gatech.edu:2048/journals/configurations/v004/4.3bolter.html
Copyright © 1996 The Johns Hopkins University Press and the Society for Literature and Science. All rights reserved.
Configurations 4.3 (1996) 311-358
Access provided by Georgia Institute of Technology
Remediation
Jay David Bolter Richard Grusin Figures
"Immediacy is, however, a one-sided determination; thought does not contain it alone, but also the determination to mediate itself with itself, and thereby the mediation being at the same time the abrogation of mediation--it is immediacy." Hegel "And, as always, coherence in contradiction expresses the force of a desire." Derrida
The Double Logic of Strange Days
"This is not like TV only better," says Lenny Nero in the futuristic film Strange Days. "This is life. It's a piece of somebody's life. Pure and uncut, straight from the cerebral cortex. You're there. You're doing it, seeing it, hearing it . . . feeling it." Lenny is touting a black-market device called "the wire" to a potential customer. The wire is a technological wonder that deserves Lenny's praise. It fits over the wearer's head like a skull cap,
1 of 40
4/6/07 11:58 AM
J. David Bolter and Richard A. Grusin - Remediation - Configurations 4:3
http://muse.jhu.edu.gtel.gatech.edu:2048/journals/configurations/v004/4.3bolter.html
and sensors in the cap somehow make contact with the perceptual centers in the brain. In its recording mode, the wire captures the sense perceptions of the wearer; in its playback mode, the device delivers these recorded perceptions to the wearer. If we accept the popular view that the role of media is to record and transfer sense experiences from one person to another, the wire threatens to make obsolete all technologies of representation. Lenny mentions television, but we can extend his critique to books, paintings, photographs, film, and